Discriminative pattern of reduced cerebral blood flow in Parkinson’s disease and Parkinsonism-Plus syndrome: an ASL-MRI study

Abstract

Background: Accurate identification of Parkinson's disease (PD) and Parkinsonism-Plus syndrome (PPS), especially in the early stage of the disease, is very important. The purpose of this study was to investigate the discriminative spatial pattern of cerebral blood flow (CBF) between patients with PD and PPS. Methods: Arterial spin labeling (ASL) perfusion-weighted imaging was performed in 20 patients with PD (mean age 56.35 ± 7.56 years), 16 patients with PPS (mean age 59.62 ± 6.89 years), and 17 healthy controls (HCs, mean age 54.17 ± 6.58 years). Voxel-wise comparison of the CBF was performed among PD, PPS, and HC groups. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to evaluate the performance of CBF in discriminating between PD and PPS. The relationship between CBF and non-motor neuropsychological scores was assessed by correlation analysis. Results: PD group showed a significantly decreased CBF in the right cerebelum_crus2, the left middle frontal gyrus (MFG), the triangle inferior frontal gyrus (IFG_Tri), the left frontal medial orbital gyrus (FG_Med_Orb) and the left caudate nucleus (CN) compared with the HC group (P < 0.05). Besides the above regions, the left supplementary motor area (SMA), the right thalamus had decreased CBF in the PPS group compared with the HC group (P < 0.05). PPS group had lower CBF value in the left MFG, the left IFG_Tri, the left CN, the left SMA, and the right thalamus compared with the PD group (P < 0.05). CBFs in left IFG_Tri, the left CN, the left SMA, and the right thalamus had moderate to high capacity in discriminating between PD and PPS patients (AUC 0.719-0.831). The CBF was positively correlated with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) scores in PD patients, while positively correlated with the MMSE, Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAMA), Hamilton Depression Scale (HAMD) scores in PPS patients (P < 0.05). Conclusion: PD and PPS patients have certain discriminative patterns of reduced CBFs, which can be used as a surrogate marker for differential diagnosis.

Early‐phase amyloid PET reproduces metabolic signatures of cognitive decline in Parkinson's disease

“…Of these, the cerebellum has low susceptibility to age‐related atrophy, minimal changes in metabolism, and CBF, and, from an amyloid perspective, demonstrates low or absent amyloid plaque burden. However, studies have reported a lowered or no difference in cerebellar perfusion in PD compared to controls or relative increases in cerebellar metabolism associated with cognitive ability in PD 80–82 . Systematic decreases or increases in the reference region will lead to artefactual SUVR increases and decreases, respectively 83 .…”

“…However, studies have reported a lowered or no difference in cerebellar perfusion in PD compared to controls or relative increases in cerebellar metabolism associated with cognitive ability in PD. 80 , 81 , 82 Systematic decreases or increases in the reference region will lead to artefactual SUVR increases and decreases, respectively. 83 While the whole cerebellum was suitable for the current study, future work may evaluate several reference regions, such as a combined cerebellum and pons.…”

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“…It is the central area of Broca’s sports language area and participates in the evaluation of sensory and emotional information [ 23 ]. Research has shown that there is a certain connection between this area and Parkinson’s syndrome [ 24 ]. Yu et al reported that the ALFF value of the left IFG was significantly reduced in patients with diabetic retinopathy [ 25 ].…”

Altered Spontaneous Brain Activity Patterns of Meibomian Gland Dysfunction in Severely Obese Population Measured Using the Fractional Amplitude of Low-Frequency Fluctuations

“…The IFG pars triangularis is also associated with concept selection by means of solving competitions between active representations ( 51 ). Cheng et al ( 52 ) reported that there is some connection between the IFG pars triangularis and Parkinson's syndrome. Qi et al ( 53 ) pointed out that children's language performance is related to the asymmetric changes of cortical thickness in the IFG pars triangularis.…”